ASEAN Beat | Society | Southeast Asia

What I Learned From a Year of Interviewing a Thai Sex Worker

Decades of research have identified economic privation as a leading cause of entry into the country’s illegal sex trade.

Illuminated signs on “Walking Street” in Pattaya, Thailand, a focus of the city’s sex industry.

When I started interviewing a Thai sex worker named Ying for my recent book, I was initially looking for something far different from what I eventually wrote. I wanted sleaze: something raw and stimulating. I had wanted to write about a harlot, someone immoral, for whom money took precedence over all. I had expected to write about their greed, their lack of morals and the hypocrisy that arose from an industry surrounding a deeply religious society.

My assumptions were both critical and ignorant. In every way, I had already decided on the book I was going to write without attempting to understand the mechanics or psychology behind them. What I have since learned is about choices, and how few meaningful ones there were for someone caught between family obligation, economic status, and religion. What I learned was about the life of a tortured soul, fighting to make the best of what she had.

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When I started interviewing a Thai sex worker named Ying for my recent book, I was initially looking for something far different from what I eventually wrote. I wanted sleaze: something raw and stimulating. I had wanted to write about a harlot, someone immoral, for whom money took precedence over all. I had expected to write about their greed, their lack of morals and the hypocrisy that arose from an industry surrounding a deeply religious........

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